Neck and Neck: A horse movie that forgets to trot

Is it worth your time?

Honestly? Probably not. If you are a die-hard fan of 1930s B-movies or have a weirdly specific obsession with old-school horse racing dramas, you might get a kick out of it. If you want a movie that makes sense or doesn't feel like it was edited with a pair of rusty garden shears, stay away.

The whole thing moves at a pace that I can only describe as aggressively mediocre. You have your standard gamblers, your honest stable hands, and enough bad dialogue to fill a bucket. It reminds me a bit of the frantic energy in Air Eagles, but without the fun of flying machines.

The Horse Problem

There is a scene midway through where the main horse just... stops. Like, it stops running and looks directly at the camera. I’m pretty sure the animal was bored. I was definitely bored.

The racing scenes are all stock footage cut into the middle of people talking in rooms. It’s jarring. You’ll see a horse tearing down the track, and then suddenly you’re back in a dusty office with Walter Brennan looking like he’d rather be anywhere else. 🐎

Odd Details

• There is a guy in the background of the paddock scene who just stares at the wall for three straight minutes.
• The sound quality dips so low in one scene I thought my speakers died.
• Stepin Fetchit shows up, and the script does him absolutely no favors. It’s hard to watch.

It’s not as soul-crushing as watching The Lonely Woman, but it comes close. The film tries to convince you that the stakes are incredibly high, but I never felt it. When the climax hits, I was mostly just checking to see how much time was left.

Maybe it’s just me, but this feels like the kind of movie they used to burn time with on a Sunday afternoon when no one was really paying attention. It’s harmless, sure. But it’s also remarkably empty. It lacks the weird, haunting charm of something like Die Gespensteruhr. It’s just... there. Existing. Taking up space on a hard drive.

I caught myself looking at my phone around the forty-minute mark. That’s usually the sign of a lost cause. Skip it unless you’re doing a marathon of forgotten 30s cinema.